updated 11:49 a.m. ET Feb. 5, 2008

Bob Knight took another swipe at the referees after resigning as Texas Tech’s basketball coach in the middle of the season.

“Well, I won’t have to see any more bad calls, that’ll be one thing,” he said Tuesday on Minneapolis radio station WCCO-AM.

The winningest coach in Division I men’s college basketball quit Monday, turning over the team to son and designated successor Pat Knight to finish the season. Texas Tech next plays Wednesday night at Baylor.

“It really wasn’t a very tough one,” Bob Knight said. “And so with that in mind, I just thought it was time for me to step down here and let him take over this coaching job here.”

The 67-year-old Knight, whose Hall of Fame career is highlighted by three national championships and countless on-court outbursts, said he’s ready to quit battling the refs.

“I mean, we had some horrendous officiating in games this year,” Knight told Minneapolis Star Tribune sports columnist Sid Hartman on the radio show. “And I think that really, to me, has never been a part of the game, but this year it just seemed to bother me more than at any other time.”

Knight had promised that when he finally decided to call it quits at Texas Tech it would be hard to find him. He was true to his word Monday.

After telling his sons, his bosses and his team of his resignation, Knight spoke only to one local newspaper about his abrupt departure in the middle of his seventh season at the school.

Knight left during his 42nd year as a head coach. Pat Knight inherited a team that is struggling at 12-8 and has 10 games remaining.

“This is my team, that’s what he told me. He’s done,” Pat Knight said on his radio show. “He’s got a lot of life left to enjoy.”

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Almost a decade after he was fired by Indiana, the school he led to three titles — one an undefeated season not since matched — Knight walked away from college basketball. He gave no hint a change was coming.

“There’s a transition that’s going to take place here from me to Pat and I’ve dwelt on this all year long ... how it would be best for him and for the team and for what we can do in the long run to make this the best thing for Texas Tech,” Knight told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, which first reported the resignation.

In September, Knight signed a three-year contract extension that ran through the 2011-12 season.

“I’ve never really known when I was going to step down from this job. As I thought about it, my first thought was at the end of this season,” Knight told the paper. “My thinking was ... the best thing for the long run for this team would be for Pat and his staff to coach these remaining 10 games.”

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Pat Knight, whose personality is more subdued than his father’s, has been a head coach twice, a partial season with the USBL Columbus Cagerz and a full season leading the Wisconsin Blast, which went 19-15 under him.

He played for Knight at Indiana and has been with his father since his arrival at Tech in 2001. He was chosen as his father’s successor in 2005.

Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said Knight told the team before practice Monday. Though Knight won’t be part of the program, his input will be available.

“If Pat wants to talk to him and to run something by him, I’m sure he will accommodate him,” Myers told The Associated Press. “Pat’s ready to be head coach.”

Knight told Myers of his decision in a noon meeting Monday, Tech chancellor Kent Hance said. Knight then called Hance and told him.

“I think Bob is through with coaching. I think he got to the point where it wasn’t fun for him,” Hance said. “He thought about it Sunday all day and talked to his wife and decided ’This is something I want to do.”’

The Red Raiders beat Oklahoma State 67-60 on Saturday, giving Knight his 902nd victory. He earned No. 900 last month against Texas A&M.

“I guess you can never be surprised at some of the things Bob does,” former UCLA coach John Wooden told the AP. “I don’t think there’s ever been a better teacher of the game of basketball than Bob. I don’t always approve of his methods, but his players for the most part are very loyal to him. I would say that no player that ever played for him would not say he did not come out a stronger person.”

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